Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for weighing dough. More in particular, the invention relates to a device for conveying a plurality of endless dough pieces, extending essentially in parallel lanes on said conveyor in a direction of conveyance.
Description of Related Art
Such devices are known in the art, for example from the European Patent EP 2 116 821 in the name of the same applicant. The device disclosed therein has proved to be an improvement over the prior art, but a demand for further development has appeared.
In particular, when applied in circumstances wherein a plurality of continuous dough pieces is processed that appear not to have equal average weight distributions, it is considered disadvantageous that an average of multiple dough pieces is weighed, in order to determine a common cutting length for all pieces, based on a desired weight per piece.
One solution may be to split up the single conveyor into a plurality of small conveyors, one for each (endless) dough piece, but this has several disadvantages. The construction is complex, and since there is a space in between the separate conveyors, there is a higher risk of filthiness such as dough and flour residue occurring in between the conveyors, which leads to more maintenance and possible negative influence on the weighing performance.
Under some circumstances the use of one or more weighing rollers may be desired, positioned under the endless conveyor, for measuring the dough conveyed by the conveyor. However, such solution has the disadvantage that a weight-curve of a dough piece measured has a triangular deformation, and it has appeared to be very sensitive to imperfections in the conveyor belt.
It is a goal of the present invention, to provide a solution that does not have the above disadvantages, or at least to provide a useful alternative to the state of the art.